HIAS-JCA Emigration Association (HICEM), Paris (Fond 740)

Rossiĭskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ voennyĭ arkhiv 

HICEM was founded in 1926 in Paris as a combination of three organizations. Its name is an acronym based on the names of the founders: HIAS (The Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society, New York), ICA (The Jewish Colonization Association, Paris) and Emigdirect, Berlin. The HICEM’s mission was to provide informational, legal, material and practical aid to Jewish emigrants. In the 1930s HICEM had 51 committees in 23 countries around the world. HICEM operated in all countries sending or receiving Jewish emigrants. However, there were exceptions in the the USA, Germany, and Palestine, where the same functions were performed by HIAS, the German Jewish Aid Society, and the Jewish Agency, respectively. HICEM mission was to centralize the Eastern European emigration operations of the three groups, including the assembling of information on potential emigrants, the legalization of status and visa formalities and the transportation arrangements and coordination with HICEM affiliates in the countries of destination. 

HIAS-JCA Emigration Association (HICEM), Paris (Fond 740) 

137 microfilm reels, 16 mm approximately 264, 000 digital images, JPEG 

Administrative files of the council of HICEM, including minutes, reports of the HICEM’s bureau of statistics, and finance department, circulars, and field trip reports. Other materials include reports on the status of Jews in various countries, lists of emigrants, reports on conferences, including minutes taken at the 1938 Evian conference, bulletins and periodicals issued by HICEM, press and media clippings, correspondence with branches and organizations in various countries, including correspondence with local HICEM branches, local charities and Jewish communities, correspondences with international organizations like the League of Nations, OZE, and the Jewish Child Welfare Organization. These records consist of materials left in Paris when the HICEM offices were moved to Bordeaux in 1940, before being transferred to Marseille and ultimately Lisbon for the duration of the war. Files that HICEM official took with them when the Paris office closed in June 1940 can be found at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (RG 245.5; http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=1309366). Note: USHMM Archives holds only selected records. 

Copyright Holder: Rossiĭskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ voennyĭ arkhiv 

Fond 740 (1906-1941). Opis 1-3; Dela 2483. Some files may have been combined or improperly arranged as they were transferred from place to place during and after the war. Arranged in 20 series: 1. Minutes, reports, circulars of HICEM administration; 2. Correspondence and letters; 3. Lists of members of branches, and committees; 4. Register of outgoing and incoming mails; 5. Records of the branches in Europe including correspondence: Austria, Albania, England, Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Holland, Greece, Denmark, City of Danzig, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Spain, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, USSR, Turkey, France, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Estonia, Yugoslavia; 6. Records of the branches in the United States of America, 1933-1940; 7. Record of the branches in South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Ecuador; 8. Records of the branches in Asia: China, Manchuria; 9. Records of branches and Jewish organizations in Palestine and Syria; 10. Records of branches in Africa: Egypt, South Africa; 11. Records of branches in Australia, 1938-1939; 12. Records of Finance Department, 1930-1940: 12. Financial records of branches in Europe; 13. Financial records of branches in North and South America, 1935-1940; 14. Financial records of the branches in Asia, Palestine, and Australia, 1931-1940; 15. Correspondence and financial records of the transport companies, 1937-1940; 16. Lists of emigrants and emigrants’ receipts and obligations, 1935-1939; 17. Lists of Jewish emigrants and statistical data on emigrants from HICEM branches, 1926-1940; 18. Emigration Bureau: Individual help to emigrants, 1930-1940; 19. Personal records of emigrants (alphabetical order); 20. Printed materials, 1928-1940. Note: Location of digital images; Microfilm reels #459-596: Entire reels.